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thefourthman wrote:Possible. It will suck if it is, because I will have massive problems getting my shipment replaced. It's also possible that the tuesday accounts didn't get it and the weds accounts did.

Before I start, my copy is kind of wonky. It's like it's been water/weather damaged or something. Maybe it's just a weird paper stock. The pages kept wanting to bend in funny places in the wrong direction, it was annoying.

CHOKER #1published by Image Comics

Story by Ben McCool
Art by Ben Templesmith

Ever since Fell, I've read everything Ben Templesmith has done. I love his art and he's always working on something quirky and dark so it's usually something I would have been interested in anyway. The same applies for Choker, I've been looking forward to it since it was announced at SDCC last year. (It was last year, right?)

At first it seemed like Choker was going to be a detective story in a real world setting, but slowly it begins to introduce some sci-fi and supernatural elements. The setup is a fairly basic private dick who hates life kind of thing, but it's handled well and I found the main protagonist to be engaging. I was enjoying this comic a lot up until the last couple of pages where it becomes overly chaotic. After studying it for a bit, I get what happens there but it probably could have been done in a way that was more clear.

This is McCool's first comics work and it kind of shows in places. He's got that psuedo-Ellis thing going on that's not uncommon with a lot of new writers over the past couple of years. I like Ellis a lot so it doesn't bother me, but I'm sure McCool will find his own voice as he goes along. Overall, I think it was a solid first outing. The plot was good, the characters were interesting and the world feels developed.

Comics with Ben Templesmith art don't look like other comics. Well, usually they don't anyway. Templesmith has this dark and heavily textured feel to his work that I always find fascinating to look at. I visit his blog regularly so I've seen his process stuff before, but it was cool that he also put it in the backmatter here in a little more detail. My only gripe with this issue would be those last couple of pages that I mentioned previously. There's no text so it's just art and while I'm sure wtf? was the intended reaction I'm not sure it was supposed to be quite so WTF?!?!?! to the point that it wasn't totally clear what was happening.

While it's not a perfect first issue, I think Choker #1 does show promise. If nothing else there looks to be massive quantities of blood and violence in the future issues and that's good enough for me as long as Templesmith is the one making the pretty pictures.

Pet Avengers? Ugh, it sounds silly. At least that's how I dismissed it when the original mini came out.

Oops.

This was really fun and I can't think of ever seeing anyone say anything bad about the original mini so I have a sneaking suspicion it was really fun too.

Great, now I have one more thing to order.

Beginnings and Endings by Chris Eliopoulos and Ig Guara
I missed the boat on the whole Frog Thor thing way back whenever, but this was a good concise 5 page story with a good character arc and some action to boot. Great art, way better than I was expecting. Great colors by Chris Sotomayor. This art team should be on something bigger than a Pet Avengers one-shot.

My Enemy, My Friend by Chris Eliopoulos and Gurihiru
This is the regular creative team from the original mini, right? Damn, this was just like reading a cartoon. Maybe it's just a bit too cute, but it's hard not to like a sabretooth tiger being followed around by baby t-rexes.

Terrier on the High Seas by Colleen Coover
I have no clue who this dog is. Again, cute story, nice art. Seriously, who da fug is this dog?

Top Dog by Scott Gray and Gurihiru
Lockjaw! Mad-Dog! Yeah, that there is a recipe for good comics. I like this Gurihiru guy, his cartoony and emotive characters are great for these kinds of stories.

Prom Queen by Buddy Scalera and Chris Eliopoulos
Eliopoulos's art is way more stylized than everything else here, but I like it. Lockheed is probably my favorite character in this book, but he's really just got a bit part in this so that's a little disappointing.

Birds of a Different Feather by Joe Caramagna and Colleen Coover
The art here maybe felt a little rough compared to Coover's other short, but I think Caramagna's story was one of the strongest in the issue.

I really liked this lot. Tails of the Pet Avengers exemplifies what modern all ages books should be. It takes established fringe Marvel characters and puts them into a format that anyone can pick up and enjoy regardless of age.

No, but there was this VERY interesting looking young lady at the LCS who was wearing a choker.

Yes, I make dumb comments like this in real life. At the LCS Wednesday, guy mentioned he was planning a party, and said: "I'm just looking for a date." I said: "You're married. You don't need a date." He said: "Not that kind of date." I said: "Oh, I see. You're constipated and looking for some dates." He just stared at me.

Before I start, my copy is kind of wonky. It's like it's been water/weather damaged or something. Maybe it's just a weird paper stock. The pages kept wanting to bend in funny places in the wrong direction, it was annoying.

That is what happens when you over-saturate both sides of the thinnest, glossiest onion leaf paper you can buy to save $$ with super-dark inks on both sides.

Street Fighter, which is the darkest book I've ever seen, was the same way. I had to hold it so as not to catch the light just to determine the panels were too dark to make out anyway.

The copies of Choker I saw today looked like they'd been accordion-folded and then semi-flattened. It's a puzzler to me, here they took artwork that should've looked amazing and turned it to a shit product like that. The book looked like someone fished it out of a dumpster when it was brand new, and it's so glossy each ripple catches the light as to make it a chore to look at.

Rooster Illusion wrote:That is what happens when you over-saturate both sides of the thinnest, glossiest onion leaf paper you can buy to save $$ with super-dark inks on both sides.

Street Fighter, which is the darkest book I've ever seen, was the same way. I had to hold it so as not to catch the light just to determine the panels were too dark to make out anyway.

The copies of Choker I saw today looked like they'd been accordion-folded and then semi-flattened. It's a puzzler to me, here they took artwork that should've looked amazing and turned it to a shit product like that. The book looked like someone fished it out of a dumpster when it was brand new, and it's so glossy each ripple catches the light as to make it a chore to look at.

Pass.

Yep, yep and yep. I wonder who made the choice here to charge $4 and then print it on the cheapest glossy stock possible?

Sorry guys, couldn't find either at my shop today. I even went looking. Looks like I'm skipping this week.

And Twigg if you had actually paid attention to the last few pages of the thread for last week, Kerny said nothing else really interested him and Fourthy said his shop wasn't going to have the book so a poll was made and the decision was reached fairly. Your being a drama queen for the sake of being a drama queen.